Regime Wins 92 Per Cent in Forced Referendum

'Huge turnout' for Burma's referendum
A referendum on a new constitution held last weekend in Burma has been approved by 92 per cent of voters, the country's state media has reported.
It said there was a 99 per cent turnout for the vote, held in areas not affected by the cyclone, Al Jazeera online.
The announcement on Burmese state television came as the forecast for survivors of the cyclone is getting increasingly bleak.
Relief supplies still have not reached the people who need them most and now bad weather is threatening aid distribution, the online news agency said.
The military government's decision to press ahead with the May 10 poll, a week after the deadly cyclone hit, was sharply criticised by aid agencies who said the government should instead be concentrating its resources on helping cyclone survivors and preventing disease.
Regions devastated by the cyclone, are set to vote on May 24, even though the United Nations estimates that around two million people are still in desperate need of food, water and shelter.
Burma's government has said 66,000 are dead or missing from the cyclone, but the Red Cross has said it believes the death toll could be in excess of 100,000.
The new constitution, which took 14 years to draft, has been heavily backed by the military government and state media.
It says the 194-page document will form the basis for democratic elections to be held sometime in 2010.
Al Jazeera correspondent Tony Cheng, who crossed secretly into the Burma border town of Myawaddy during the Saturday's vote, found few people who had read the constitution or supported it.
Many people he spoke to said they planned to put an X in the 'No' box. Critics have denounced the constitution as a sham, designed only to institutionalise the military's grip on power.
Under its terms the military will be guarantied a quarter of all seats in a future parliament, while another clause allows the president to hand over all power to the military in a state of emergency.
Activists who have spent time in jail because of their opposition to the military government will be barred from standing for election because of their criminal records.(THE NATION)

Time to Invoke ‘Responsibility to Protect’: Burmese Activists
By LALIT K JHA
Thursday, May 15, 2008, -->
The UN is being urged by the Burmese expatriate community to invoke the "responsibility to protect" principle to save the lives of people stranded in the Irrawaddy delta 12 days after Cyclone Nargis devastated the area.
Expatriates have also called upon the United States, Britain and France—the three permanent members of the Security Council—to unilaterally provide aid and relief to the affected people even if it means bypassing the UN and Burma's military government.
"Now is the time to act. You have helicopters, ships and supplies ready and waiting. Stop waiting for China or the Burmese regime's approval and send aid now," wrote Aung Din, the director of the US Campaign for Burma, in a letter addressed to the heads of state.
Meanwhile, another key activist group, the Burma Campaign UK, will hold demonstrations on Saturday at the embassies of the US and France as well as the UK foreign office.
Mark Farmaner, the director of the Burma Campaign UK, said: "We have to face up to reality. Every day of delay is costing lives. The UK, USA and France have ships off the coast that could save lives today. Are we really going to let thousands die just a few miles from life-saving food and medicine sitting unused on our ships?"
A group of Burmese monks began a three-day hunger strike in front of the United Nations in New York on Thursday, while other expatriates launched letter campaigns to the prime minister of Britain and the presidents of France and the US.
On Wednesday, representatives of Burmese monks in the US delivered a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging him to travel to Burma to assess the situation.
"We are not eating because our people are not eating,” said Ashin Nyaka, a monk and visiting professor at Columbia University. “They are starving while the world waits and the Burmese generals steal the food aid. Maybe when the UN sees hungry people outside its door, it will act more decisively."
The Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB) will hold a rally in three Canadian cities—Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver—on Saturday to urge stronger action from the UN and leading Western countries.
"When the military junta fails to provide proper protection for its own citizens, there is a responsibility of the world community to protect the vulnerable people facing the dire situation on the ground," said Tin Maung Htoo, the executive director of CFOB. (THE IRRAWADDY)